"Ethical" drugs distract from real issues

Philip Stevens, the director of the health program for the London, UK-based think-tank, the International Policy Network, has accused the promoters of "ethical pharmaceuticals" of taking "energy and discussion away from the things that really matter, such as infrastructure, doctors, nurses, water management and indoor air pollution. Without improvements there, people will go on dying from easily preventable diseases which already have cheap cures."

In an article in the Johannesburg, South Africa, newspaper, the Business Day, Mr Stevens described the "ethical pharmaceuticals" project as based on a "simple premise," that access to drugs in poor countries is caused by the high prices of patented products.

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